1/350 scale what if USS Gettysburg TICONDEROGA class cruiser.

[seadude]

Due to a dangerous heat wave all this week plus the possibility of rain spoiling July 4th weekend, I'll be spending time indoors working on building this kit that I got from my best friend's model stash when he passed away. It's been a long time since I've built this kit. The last time was maybe 20-25 years ago. But the results from that previous kit weren't the greatest. I now hope to improve this current kit considerably.
What will be whiffed? Stay tuned and stand by!
I can at least say the Tico will have a blue lower hull similar to what was on the USS Port Royal in the early 2000's. Pic below. It was an experimental anti-fouling paint coating. Since I built previous aircraft carrier, battleship, and destroyer models with blue lower hulls (Pics below), I might as well add to my "future fleet" with a cruiser hull. 

[seadude]

P.S. - I'm also taking some slight inspiration from these pics I found on the Modelwarships gallery long ago. The build is a bit "crude", but still inspires me nonetheless. But I most likely will not be putting a 8"/55 cal Mk.71 gun at the bow on my model.

[kerick]

"But I most likely will not be putting a 8"/55 cal Mk.71 gun at the bow on my model"

Oh come on now, go big or go home!  

[seadude]

"But I most likely will not be putting a 8"/55 cal Mk.71 gun at the bow on my model"

Oh come on now, go big or go home!  

There's no way I'm going to be able to put a gun of that size on my model. The base of the 8"/55 mount is SIGNIFICANTLY wider than that for the regular 5" gun mount that the Ticonderoga class uses. Pic below. The only way the modeler put one on his Ticonderoga in the pictures I showed further above was that he cut the forward VLS system down from 64 hatches to 32 which made more space for him to have the 8"/55 gun on the deck. I am NOT going to do that to my forward VLS system.
https://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_8-55_mk71.php